This is
an eight lesson study designed to help those who've fallen by the
wayside and need restoration. Click here to see
the index showing the eight lessons within this study.

"Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such
an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also
be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of
Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing,
he deceiveth himself." Galatians
6:1-3

The Ministry of Rescue
and Recovery

1 Sam 30:18-20, "And David recovered
all that the (1) Amalekites had carried away: And there was nothing lacking
to them, (2) neither small nor great, (3) neither sons nor daughters, (4) neither
spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all. And David
took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle,
and said, This is David's spoil."

Prov.18:19 A brother offended
is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars
of a castle.

In any branch of the service, the
main objection is to be in shape, to be ready to go to war. Not only to go,
but also to win any battle that may face them. In the course of the battle,
there are casualties; i.e. death, wounded, etc. However, there is one casualty
that brings not only the unit together, but a nation, and that is the p.o.w.(the
prisoner of war) The thought of an enemy holding one of our own men or women
hostage brings anger and aggression to the point of strategy of recovering and
bringing them home. Lives have been lost, millions have been spent around the
world in order to achieve this goal.

Neither sons nor daughters. Church
members who have lost sons and daughters to the world.

Neither spoil. Those that once
tithed to the church to help keep it running now spend their money to help
support the devils work leaving our churches in a financial bind.

The Bible than says that David recovered
all. And not only that, but his attitude was "These things (his wives, sons,
daughters, flocks and herds) are mine. God gave them to me and I'm taking them
back!" It is quite apparent that David did not do this all on his own, but he
had help. They were all of the same mind, and had the same motive; to rescue
and bring back to their homes all that God had given them.

As Christians, we are in a army.
And our goal should be the same as the worlds, to be in shape, to be ready to
go to war. We also have battles and casualties. However, our view of the p.o.w.
is different than that of the worlds. Unfortunately, the Christian of the 90's
have little use for those that have either deserted or have been taken captive
by Satan. The general feeling among most is "they are reaping what they've been
sowing" instead of getting angry at the wiles of the devil and making strategies
of how they can be recovered. Most forget what the Bible says in 1 Cor.10:12
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

However, our strategy for recovering
those taken captive is quite different than that of a regular army. Those taken
captive in a war wait earnestly for their liberators, while those taken captive
by Satan most times do not wish to be liberated, but to stay in captivity. The
objection of this ministry is to show them their need to recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil.

However, that is not the only reason.
When we see one of our brethren fall away from church, from service to the Lord,
we need to do everything that we can to try to rescue them. Bitterness and anger
is a very tough enemy to face. Feelings get hurt intentionally and unintentionally.
As we move closer and closer to the Lord's return, it takes less and less for
Christians to drop away. Not only will we use the Word of God to restore them,
but also we will use longsuffering, patience, understanding, and wisdom to restore
unto them the joy of their salvation. (for there is no joy in the clutches of
Satan.)

Our plan:

An eight (number of new beginning)
week course that will go over the subjects listed below. Our plan is that at
the end of the eight weeks, they will be ready to return to their battalion
(church) and get back in the thick of the battle.

This study could not have been accomplished
without the mercies of my Father, the sacrifices of my best Friend, and the
wisdom given by my Comforter. Therefore, all glory and honor belongs to the
Godhead for any and all fruits that may result from it. Bro. Mike Althaus

All scripture used is taken from
the Word of God--KJV 1611

LESSON
1

Forgiveness (Col.3: 13)

Luke 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father,
forgive them; for they know not what they do.

Acts 7:60 And he (Stephen)
kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge.

Gen.50:17 ... and now, we pray
thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph
wept when they spake unto him. (Joseph's brothers)

The first step back into fellowship
with the Lord Jesus Christ is being back in fellowship with other Christians.
We are commanded by the Lord to take care of our differences between each other
first before we go before Him for anything. (Matt.5:23-24) Our prayer life is
hindered, (Prov.28:9) our worship is hindered,(Matt.5:23) and our fellowship
with the Lord is hindered. (1Jn.1:6-7)

For many, this is the hardest step
taken because of the hurt they might have felt, whether intentional or not.
Our human nature is one of revenge. We don't want to forgive, but rather we
want to retaliate. There are several ways that an individual does this:

They strike inwardly (instead
of a explosion, they have a implosion; they carry a grudge, they withdraw
inwardly; they harbor ill-feelings; few words are exchanged)

They strike out against God (They
quit church, the bible reading is dropped as well as their prayer life; what
was once a way of life is now rejected and they return from whence they came.
They blame God for the situation they are in; God is at fault for everything)

However, God in His patience, tries
to draw them back through several ways:

By the situation they have put
themselves in (Lk.5:15)

By the conviction of the Holy
Spirit (Lk.15:17)

Through others (2Cor.1:4)

In this lesson, we will look at the
three areas of forgiveness. These three need to be confronted before we can
have restitution with Jesus.

Gen.50:15-21 And when Joseph's
brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure
hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. And
they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he
died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass
of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray
thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph
wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before
his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them,
Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against
me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save
much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little
ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

1) Are you ready to forgive?

Although Joseph's brothers did him
much wrong, Joseph was ready to forgive.(Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish
you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.)

How was he able to do that after
all that he went through because of them.

a) There was no malice in his heart
towards them. In Col.3:8 we are to put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
filthy communication out of your mouth.(All these take care of the first way
we try to strike out with) and we are to put on kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, longsuffering; and we are to forbear (put up with) one another,
if any man (or woman) have a quarrel against any; (that means you against
them, or them against you!) and we are to do it even as Christ forgave us
(we didn't deserve forgiveness, but He made a way anyway; that being the cross
at Calvary) so also do ye.(That is a command, not a suggestion)

b) Joseph forgot about it and he
didn't continue to bring it up! (And when Joseph's brethren saw that their
father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly
requite us all the evil which we did unto him.) It was his brethren that brought
it up, not Joseph. It was never mentioned again after Joseph put them at ease
about it. If you are ready to forgive, then you must be ready to bury it and
never allow it to resurface again. Micah 7:19 ".. thou wilt cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea." Jer.31:34 .. for I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

The Lord is ready to forgive because
He is ready to forget. The question is: ARE YOU?

2) Are you willing to forgive?

There are two kinds of forgiveness:
us hurting others, and others hurting us. In these lessons, we will be looking
at the latter. Although Joseph's brothers did him much wrong, Joseph was willing
to forgive them. What is needed to willingly forgive someone when you know perfectly
well that it was not your fault, it's cause you much pain, and bitterness is
springing up in you.

a) You need to overlook the cause
of the problem. ("God meant it unto good") Yes, they caused Joseph grief,
heartaches, and loneliness. Yes, they caused him to be accused falsely, caused
him to spend time in prison, to be sold and treated like a slave. Yes, they
cause him anguish to be separate from the ones he loved, his father Jacob
and his brother Benjamin.(**personal note: I believe Joseph was closest to
Benjamin because (a) they were brothers, not half-brothers and

(b) they came from Rachel who was
Jacobs first true love) But yet, when there was a famine in the land, he made
sure his father and brothers were taken care of. Why? If anyone had a reason
to be bitter and get revenge, it certainly was Joseph. Being the second most
powerful individual in Egypt, he was in the position to do serious damage
to them if he wanted to. But he didn't. Long before king David penned these
words, the Lord already showed Joseph that the LORD is righteous in all his
ways, and holy in all his works.(Psa.145:17) He was able to overlook what
they've done to him.

That kind of attitude can only be
a result of the Holy Spirit. Eph.4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
I'm thankful that the Lord overlooks many of my faults and He tells me to do
the same.(Matt.18:32-33)

b) We need to look at the cause
of the problem. The reason Joseph's brethren sold him in the first place was
because of jealousy and envy. (Gen.37:4,8,11) These are the same reasons that
the scribes and Pharisees delivered up Jesus to Pilate (Jn.11:47-53; Matt.27:18)
But yet both these men were able to forgive. Eph.6:12 For we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against
the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in
high places.

When we can fully grasp this Scripture
and understand what it means, we then can see the cause of the problem; know
that it is the satanic empire attempting to disorganize the body of Christ through
our hurt feelings and our pride (only by pride cometh contention Prov.13:10)
and overlook anything and everything that will stand in the way of our spiritual
growth and walk with the Lord.

3) Are you able to forgive?

Has someone done you so wrong that
you are willing to give up:

a)His mercy (Matt.5:7)

b)His rewards (Lk.6:27-35)

c)His forgiveness (Mk.11-25-26)

d)His compassion on you (Matt.18:32-35)

e)His blessings (1Pet.3:9)

The time is short, the cost is heavy,
and our judgment is at hand. Psa.86:5 For thou, Lord, art good, and ready
to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Would
to God we as humans would have the same mind.

LESSON
2

Peace with self and God (Col.3:15)

Rom.14:17-19 For the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and
approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace,
and things wherewith one may edify another.

As a child of God, Jesus in Matt.6
commands us:33 to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness before
our basic needs. When we do this, we will have peace and joy. (Note: You can
not have joy without peace and peace comes only through the Lord Jesus. Jn.16:33)
As someone who has been hurt or offended and has gotten away from church, the
saints, and the Savior, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost has been replaced with
bitterness, anger, hatred, which are the works of the flesh.(Gal.5:19-21) This
is a very dangerous state to be in. What happens is that you leave the path
that the Lord has for you, the paths of uprightness, and you end up walking
in the ways of darkness. Prov.4:18-19 "But the path of the just is as the
shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the
wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble." Where at one
time when decisions had to be made, you were being led by the Spirit, God was
real in your life, and though life around you was rough, you had that peace
that passeth all understanding. Now you're not sure which way to go. You're
unstable, and instead of being led by the Spirit, you're being controlled by
your hurt, anger, and emotions.

So, what are those things that you
need to follow which make for peace?

1) Make peace with yourself. How?

a) Forgive those who might have
caused you pain. Mark 11:25-26 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye
have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive
you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which
is in heaven forgive your trespasses. A good example of this would be
Joseph. Here is a young man who never did anything to his brothers, but because
of their jealousy and envy, there first planned was to kill him. When Reuben
his brother interceded for him, they then stripped him of his coat that his
father made for him, threw him into a pit with no water, and finally came
to the realization that they could make some money by selling him off as a
slave. He was lied about and thrown into prison. His youth, country, father,
family life, all was taken from him. But for all these things, Joseph forgave
them. They didn't deserve his forgiveness, but Joseph loved them enough to
overlook what they did to him. What all Christians need to realize is that"
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places." Eph.6:12. There has been a few times I have
been hurt by the brethren and have carried a chip on my shoulder and in my
mind I could justify leaving all because of that hurt, but I realized that
losing that peace would not be worth the revenge I wanted to take or the hurt
that I wanted to inflict on them for what they did to me. If I did those things,
I would be leaving that righteous path and would be headed down a wicked path
that may have taken years to get off of. Not to mention that I could take
others with me. Josh 22:20... man perished not alone in his iniquity.

b) Ask God to forgive those who
have caused you pain. Luke 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them;
for they know not what they do. After you have forgiven the individual(s),
now you need to ask God to forgive them for what they have done. When you
come to this stage, God's peace is already working in you. Instead of retaliation,
you're asking for restoration between you and others.

It's a wonderful feeling when you
can go to God and ask Him from your heart to forgive someone. It truly is a
peace that no one can understand. The worlds motto is get back, get even. God's
motto is forgive, let go, and go on to perfection.

c) Ask God to forgive you for allowing
Satan to get in and cause divisions between you and another child of God.
1 Th 5:13 ... be at peace among yourselves. This is a command from
God. He knows that we will not all get along, that we will say things that
are not right. This is why we are told to have longsuffering, patience, forbearance,
and forgiveness with one another. The Bible says in Eph.4:26 Be ye angry,
and sin not. And the next verse(v27) tells us Neither give place to
the devil. So when you do get angry and break fellowship and you quit
coming to church, what you've done is give placed to the devil and therefore
you've sinned. But know this, it's not always the other parties fault. At
times, the fingers point back to us. Col.3:15 And let the peace of God
rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye
thankful. The question is who's ruling who?

Now that we see how to reinstate
true peace within ourselves, how can we have peace with God? Job 22:21 Acquaint
now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. Get
reacquainted with your Savior. When we are in a backslidden state, we break
that precious fellowship with our Father. Scriptures that we were once able
to quote from memory are now hard to recall. Where at one time we enjoyed going
to church, listening to the preaching, fellowshipping, encouraging other saints,
it's now replaced with a feeling of emptiness, loneliness, bitterness, and anger.
You've forgotten what God has done for you, the blessings He bestows daily,
the price He paid on Calvary so you can have the peace of God when you made
peace with God. Get back to you Friend, realize He wants you back in fellowship
with Him. But understand that it won't happen until your back in fellowship
with others.(Mat 5:23-24) Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out
your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. Psa.62:8

In conclusion, after you have made
peace with yourselves, others, and God, here are 5 factors you need to remember.

Anger and bitterness causes confusion.
1 Cor.14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but
of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

True peace came when you received
Jesus as your Savior. God forgave you when you didn't deserve it. Go, and
do likewise to others. Col.1:20 And, having made peace through the blood
of his cross

The need to swallow your pride
and humble yourself in order to get that peace. Sometimes the road God leads
us down when we want help is not always the road we would have picked! But
if we want that peace, we will pursue it no matter the cost. Psa.34:14
Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

You need fellowship. It is a very
important part of our Christian walk. God never has set it up for Christians
to be loners.(Ecc.4:9) 2 Tim 2:22 follow righteousness, faith,
charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

You need knowledge. 2 Pet 1:2
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of
Jesus our Lord.

2 Pet 1:5-9 And beside this, giving
all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge
temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness
brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

For if these things be in you, and
abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind,
and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old
sins.

LESSON
3

Growth (Col.3:16)

Col.3:16 Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Growth comes in four areas:

a) By study and research.

b) By experience.

c) By trials and tribulations.

d) By chastisement

Briefly, we will look at all four
of these areas. As Christians, we are commanded by God to grow. I believe all
four of these areas working together will help us to grow into mature Christians.

(a) By study and research
The Bible tell us in 2Tim.2:15 that we are to "study to show thyself approved
unto God". Even as God provide food for our physical well being, even so does
He provide food for ours spiritual well being. The question is, do we want
to grow or not? 1 Cor.3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat:
for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
Why were these Christians in Corinth not able to bear or handle the meat of
the word? Because they were still infants in their Christian walk. Understanding
that some have been hurt by the church or by fellow Christians, we still have
a command by God to grow in His word which will help us grow in our Christian
walk.

There are a good many thing we can
learn from studying others. Biographies give us insight into the lives of others
that can (if we allow them to) help us as Christians to grow. The more you study
about others, the more you'll realize that you are not the only one who has
ever been treated wrongly. 2 In 1 Cor.10:13 the Bible states " There hath no
temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who
will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." There
are several scenario's that runs through an individual's mind when another hurts
them. They are:

Anger and retaliation. This is
the getting even scenario

Sadness and self-rejection. This
is the feeling sorry for one's self-scenario.

Giving up on God, church, and
Christians. This is the quitters scenario.

Forgiving and forgetting. This
is the right scenario.

Our first instinct as humans is to
retaliate. That is a natural feeling for the natural man. (1Cor2:14)

But as Christians, "great peace
have they that love thy law: and nothing shall offend them." The only way
to love the law (God's Word) is to spend time in it. That' why God tells us
to grow, because He knows that there will be situation coming in our lives that
will try us and if we are not nurtured in His word, we are and will continue
to be easy targets for Satan's devices.

(b) By experience Eph.4:11-14
And he gave some... pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till
we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ:

That we henceforth be no more children,
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight
of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.

The second way that we grow is through
the local new testament church. Here in Eph. 4 we see three reasons:

1) For the perfecting of the saints.
One of the definitions of perfect is: Thoroughly skilled or talented in a certain
field or area; proficient. I believe that the purpose for church is not just
a place where we go to socialize, but to be aware that we are in a spiritual
warfare, and as such we need to be trained on how to fight the battles that
come our way daily. And as we are taught, there will be lessons that we will
not agree with.

2) For the work of the ministry.
Again, one definition of ministry is: The act of serving. God has called out
certain men to whom He gave the ability to minister.(1Pet.4:11) God has put
these men in churches to be a help to other Christians. God will teach His man
who will in turn teach others. As the Lord Jesus Christ says in Mat 20:28
Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and
to give his life a ransom for many. Even so, a true man of God has the same
motives.

3) For the edifying of the body of
Christ. To edify is to instruct to encourage spiritual improvement. The goal
of any teacher or preacher is to strive to help others improve on their Christian
walk and theyre going on to perfection. That means that there will be
times a sermon is preached, a lesson taught that will go against our reasoning,
our "upbringing" our standards, and our "way of doing things." However, if we
have any desires to grow, we have to look at every sermon, every lesson, with
the attitude "how can this help me improve my walk with the Lord." If we go
into it with that attitude, than it becomes the responsibility of the pastor
to have his heart and motives right with God.

c) By trials and tribulation.
There's an old saying "experience is the best teacher." Tribulation
worketh patience; and patience, experience. When we are in trials and
tribulations, we ought not see how fast we can get out of them, but rather
see what we learn from them. Every trial, every storm God allows us to go
through, if we stop and realize that The LORD is righteous in all his ways,
and holy in all his works.(Ps.145:17) we would than know that it is meant
for our good if we would just look for it. In Matt.14, the Bible gives us
the account of the apostles being on the sea being tossed to and fro by the
storm. A closer look at this account will reveal a few things:

Jesus sent them out to sea knowing
the storm was coming. (Matt.14:22) That
shows that He's know what you're about to face before you do.

Jesus would have walked by them
in the storm had they not called out to Him for help.(Mk.6:48) That
shows that Jesus will help us when we call unto Him for help. In
other words, we learn to humble ourselves.

Peters faith was not
as strong as he thought it was. (Matt.14:30)

Jesus was walking above the storm,
while Peter was sinking into it. The same thing applies to ourselves when we
encounter storms. Do we rise above them with the help of Jesus, or do we sink
in them with the aid of anger, self-pity, and frustration being used as weights
to help draw us down faster! A lesson to be learned from Prov. 24:10 If thou
faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.

They witnessed the power of the
Lord Jesus Christ. (Matt.14:33)

That shows that although we have
storms is our lives, as long as we have the Lord in the boat with us, we know
that experience produces hope, and with that hope we believe that not only will
we eventually come out of it sooner or later, but we will come out of it victorious.

d) By chastisement (Deut.8:5;
Heb.12:6-8) There will be situations in which all the reading, studying, church
attending, and praying done by an individual will not appease the situation
they are in. This usually occurs when Satan has them believing that God is
not handling the problem in the fashion that an individual believes He should
handle it. The need to jump in and take control overwhelms them and soon the
small problem is escalated to a huge problem. At times, God will not allow
this to happen and when it is over we're thankful He didn't allow it. But
there are times that He will allow situations to happen to teach us a lesson.
It depends on our motives, our determination to see the matter through, and
our willingness to listening to the Holy Spirit when He tries to stop us through
His convicting power. When we go on impulse, for the most part God will usually
fix it where the damage is not that severe. But when we plot and plan and
choose to ignore God's conviction, that is when He teaches us a lesson we
are not likely to forget. And from this chastisement, there are 3 possibilities
that can occur.

We can get mad and quit on
God

We can get sad and quit on ourselve

We can get glad and learn from
the chastisement

Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Heb.12:11

Teach me, and I will hold my tongue:
and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.Job 6:24

Something to think about when you
feel like God is putting you through the ringer and it seems like He doesn't
care when you go through your trials and tribulations.

God
Really Only Wants
To Help

Psa.119:71 It is good for me that
I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

LESSON 4

Service (Col.3:24)

John 12:26 If any man serve me,
let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man
serve me, him will my Father honour.

The next step in getting back in
fellowship with God is in the matter of service. After a individual returns
back to the church, the general attitude is to remain seated in the pew until
he/she are ready to return to service for God, whether as a usher, sun. school
teacher, choir, or whatever. I suppose they can justify this within their reasoning
because after all they are back in church and "isn't this what you've(the church)
wanted?" Yes, we are happy they are back in church, but it's not what we
want, it's what God wants. God just uses His servants to point out in His
Word His will and then lets the Holy Spirit do the rest. So, those back in church
are there because the Holy Spirit convicted them and they've responded.

Some questions that should be considered
to those that wish to remain seated:

What time span are they looking
at before you say "I'm ready?" 6mo., 1yr., 3wks. Remember, all the time seated
cannot be replaced. It is lost time. Eph.5:16 Redeeming the time, because
the days are evil.

What rewards will you be earning
by doing nothing for God? NONE!

Prov.14:23 In all labour there
is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. The word penury
means extreme want or poverty, destitution, dearth, barrenness. When we work
for God, we store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal Matt.6:20. which
can be compared with gold, silver, precious stone.(1Cor.3:3:12) But if all you
do is sit in the pew and say one day you will work for Him but never do anything,
it is meaningless and you are rewarded with slothfulness, and indifference for
Gods work which can be compared to poverty, destitution, dearth, and barrenness.
(wood, hay, stubble. 1Cor.3:12)

Prov.11:31 Behold, the righteous
shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner.
When we work for the Lord, we really get a two-fold repayment for our service
to Him. While here on earth, God blesses us with the fruits of the spirit (Gal.5:22-25),
the abundantly life Jesus is referring to in Jn.10:10; be it a good home, a
good Godly spouse, obedient children and then in His millennium kingdom, we
will have the privilege to rule over cities with Him. As for the wicked and
the sinner, they also will be recompensed for their service. The wicked being
the unbeliever and their reward for serving the devil while here on this earth
is a life that is empty, worthless, without meaning. And their reward after
they die is eternal damnation in the lake of fire.

The sinner is the backslider. James
4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is
sin. (An unsaved man does not know how to do good as defined by the Bible.
He may know right and wrong, but not good and evil according to God's definition.)
The reward for the backslider while here on earth is no peace or joy, unstableness,
uncertainty of what to do with their lives. He knows he doesn't fit in anymore
with the unsaved because of their wallowing in sin, but yet he doesn't fit in
with those that love the Lord and are serving Him because they are glorying
in His blessings in their lives. And so, the best they can, they try to contend
with the situation, and some live their lives as a man that travelleth.(Prov.6:11)
And then their reward in the millennium is to be ruled over instead of ruling
and in eternity no rewards to show, no crowns to cast at Jesus feet. Is
doing nothing worth it?

How much of the Holy Spirits conviction
will you be able to handle as you sit there watching others work and hearing
their rejoicing as they lead or help lead others to the Lord Jesus? The answer-
until you've quenched the Spirit enough to where He won't use you until He's
ready.

Prov.16:3 Commit thy works unto
the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established. In Neh.4:6 the Bible says
that the people had a mind to work. Even though you may not want to work when
you first return back to church, if you commit to work for God, the Bible says
that God will give you that mind eventually as you work for Him. However, there
is another side to that.

Hosea 5:15 I will go and return
to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their
affliction they will seek me early. It's not when we are ready for God's
company, but it's when He's ready to allow us to have fellowship with Him. And
when He shuts it off, it's not going to begin again until He says so. That should
teach us that we should not take God for granted nor to expect God to use us
in His service any old time we see fit.

One of the definitions of the word
serve is To give homage and obedience to. We read at the end of John 12:26
if any man serve me, him will my Father honour. So we see that if we submit
ourselves wholly to the Lord Jesus Christ and give him honor, His Word says
that God the Father will give us honor! Here is the creator of the universe,
the King of kings, whose face the earth will flee from, the giver of life to
all in existence giving us honor. With these things in mind, you may ask: What
can we give God? What can be fit for our Masters use? If we're not careful,
we will believe the lie that God can't use anything we have to offer, when in
fact, we have much we can give Him if we choose to. That's where it all starts,
knowing that God can and will use us if we are willing. What has to be established
in each Christians mind is that God does not expect giant things from us, but
rather small simple things. They appear giant in our minds because we may not
want to fully surrender to all God wants from us. It doesn't matter what has
happened in the past, His mercies are new, His blessings are encouraging, and
His opportunities are present to those that are looking for another chance.
Listed are several things we can give as service to the One who gave all for
us.

1) Our time-- We have many
abilities that we can give to the Lord, but I believe the most important and
sacrificial is our availability. Availability means:

Present and ready for use; at
hand; accessible

Capable of being gotten; obtainable.

Qualified and willing to serve.

Capable of bringing about a beneficial
result or effect.

We live in a fast pace society, and
at times, 24 hrs. in a day seems to short. Working everyday, meeting deadlines,
running here and there, we all look forward to times which we can call our own.
And then when we go to church, there's a man standing in front of the pulpit
asking, demanding, provoking us for the little free time we do have and give
it for the service of the Lord.

There are buses to drive, sunday
school classes to teach, ushers are needed as well as those that clean the house
of God. There is never a shortage of jobs in the Lord's work. And now, after
coming back into the fold, eventually, you will be asked again to help.

Mat 25:36... I was sick, and ye visited
me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Mat 25:39-40... when saw we thee
sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto
them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least
of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. The Lord allows us to work
side by side with Him to accomplish His plan. It's up to us to say "no" or "Here
am I; send me." When you say no, you are shutting off any possibilities of earning
the rewards God has in plan for those who serve.

But when we say "yes," what we really
are saying is that "my time is really your time and how may I serve thee with
what you give me" God loveth a cheerful giver. 1Cor 15:58 Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

The Lord is keeping track. But here
is a question to ponder: Does God really need us to fulfil His task here on
earth? The answer to that question is no. We read in Luke 19:37-40 that when
the disciples were praising God, the Pharisees told Jesus to quiet them. But
He told the Pharisees that that, if these(the disciples) should hold
their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. If you don't want to
work for Him, He will find those that will and you will miss out. But it will
cost you something, and that something is time. But apply it to your everyday
life and consider this: success cost time. Whether it be in a marriage, a family,
a career, or a business, to be successful in any of these areas you must put
time into them. The same with your spiritual walk with Jesus.

2) our talent-- Every human
being that has ever lived, is living, or will be living, God has equipped with
a talent. Whether it is being musically inclined, having the ability to work
with tools, being a motivator, or what have you, God has seen to it that not
one living soul is without a talent. We need to realize that not only does He
give us these talents, but He also gives us the opportunities to use them, but
it is up to us to make use of every situation. The problem though is that while
some never use what God gives them, others use their talents sparingly. And
still others use them for the god of this world. If God has given you the ability
to speak in front of others, why not be a sunday school teacher? Or how about
an evangelist? It will mean sacrifice, but "... God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in
that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister." Heb.6:10

3) our tithe-- Mat 6:21
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Another way to
serve God is with our finances. The lights, heat, air conditioning, everything
that goes into providing the church member with modern luxuries takes money.
Tracks given out, missionaries going into foreign fields, bibles given out to
men and women behind prison bars, all these and more are made possible by church
members who obey the command to tithe.

Psa.50:10-12 For every beast of
the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls
of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry,
I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. The
purpose of tithing is not to see how much money the church can get from you,
but it is for you to have a part in God's work here on earth. There's a old
saying: If God can get the checkbook, He will have the Christian!

When you get right to the heart of the matter, service is yielding yourself
to God in every aspect of life.

LESSON
5

Prayer (Col.4:2)

Phil 4:6 Be careful for nothing;
but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests
be made known unto God.The Bible is given to us so that we may know God's
mind on how we are to live as Christians. It encourages us when we sin and fall
into divers temptations with accounts of those that went before us, and gives
us a glimpse of what will be taking place not only in the future here on earth,
but in eternity. However, if we truly want to have a close personal relationship
with Jesus, it will only come through prayer. Nothing can build a stronger bond
between two individuals than constant communication between themselves. Prayer
moves the hand of Jesus, it touches the heart of Jesus, and it heals the hurts
of Christians. As a Christian who has been away from church for any length of
time, careful consideration must be given on not only your bible reading schedule,
but also on the amount of time spent fellow shipping with the Lord through prayer.
We will look at three different aspects concerning this topic of prayer.

1) Does God always hear my prayer?
The answer to that is no, He does not. Psa.69:13 But as for me, my prayer
is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude
of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation. This means that we
can pray as hard and as much as we want, but if we are not right with Him and
with the brethren, God will not here us. Lam.3:8,44 Also when I cry and shout,
he shutteth out my prayer. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our
prayer should not pass through. What can hinder our prayers from being heard
and answered from God?

a) Your not saved. (Is.59:1-2)
John 9:31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners No matter how much
an individual prays, God does not hear them. Some may say " I have prayed
before and it seems that He answered me." In 1 Tim 2:1 the bible tell us that
".. supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made
for all men" Some one was praying for you and God granted an answer
to there pray on your behalf. (Gen.19:28-29) If God was to answer
everyone's prayer regardless if they've accepted His free gift of salvation
or not, what would be the reason to get saved in the first place? When we
do accept Jesus as our Savior, we are resurrected from the dead, and brought
back into fellowship with God, and then we can "... come boldly unto the
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time
of need." Heb.4:16 Because then God doesn't see us, but He sees the blood
of the Lamb that cleansed us!

b) You have unconfessed sin. (Prov.28:13)
" He that covereth his sins shall not prosper" You'll not have a close
walk with God, you'll not get victory over sin, you'll not grow as a Christian,
whatever the situation, the bible says that you will not prosper in anything
when you have sin in your life that you know needs to be dealt with. The line
of communication between you and God is shut down because of that unconfessed
sin. Get it confessed, accept whatever chastisement (if any) God brings to
you, and go on and live for Him. Psa.32:5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. It is
a guaranteed fact that the little spankings God gives is not to be compared
with the years of agony that can and is spent away from the blessings of God.
Prov.10:22 The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow
with it.

c) You harbor sin against others
(Ps.66:18) Psa. 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not
hear me. As a Christian who has been hurt by others, this is a very important
fact to consider. If you say you have forgiven someone with your mouth, but
not with your heart, the Bible teaches that God will not forgive you until
you have truly forgiven others.(Mk.11:25-26)

What needs to be realized is that
it is you that is getting hurt by not forgiving others, not the one who
might have caused the pain. Jer.5:25 ...your sins have withholden good things
from you

Mat 5:23-24 Therefore if thou
bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought
against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be
reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Here we see
that if any have anything against us, and we know it, we are to go to them and
get it right. We are not to wait on them to see if they will come to us to get
the matter right. Our relationship with Jesus and all that we can do for Him
will be hindered because of our pride. Mat 18:21-22 Then came Peter to him,
and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?
till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times:
but, Until seventy times seven. That means countless. Here in Matt.18, it
doesn't say anything about the brother coming and asking for forgiveness, but
in direct relationship with Matt.5, it clearly teaches that we are to forgive
regardless if they come and ask for forgiveness or not. Remember, you cannot
love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ properly if you have anything against one
of His children, which happens to be your spiritual brother or sister. 1
John 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for
he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he
hath not seen?

d) When we are in a backslidden
state. (1Pet.3:12) 1 Pet 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous,
and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. The thought of Christians living anyway they want,
and then praying to God thinking that He will answer them is as preposterous
as thinking you can never read your bible and grow as a mature Christian.
It just will not happen. We cannot expect a holy and righteous God to answer
our prayers while we are living in the state of sin. Acts 10:34 ...God
is no respecter of persons. God is not going to deal with you any different
than anyone else that is living in sin, no matter what kind of fellowship
you think you have with God. What we can expect is the Holy Spirit's conviction
on our lives to get the situation right so fellowship, peace, and joy can
once more be restored. The Lord would rather commune with His children than
chastise them.

2) What kind of prayers does the
Lord accept?

a) When we come to Him of our own
free will. (Psa.119:108) Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings
of my mouth, O LORD, and teach me thy judgments. Being forced to do anything
shows that it is not a free choice on our part. We do not confess our sins
because we are forced to, but because we want to. When David sinned against
the Lord with Bathsheba, he made it plain when he wrote Ps.51 that he was
in the wrong and he begged the Lord to forgive him. Why was God so merciful?
" For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me."
David came of his own free will and freely confessed his wrong. The results
were God forgave him his wrong and David is not only known as the king
of Israel, but also as a man after God's own heart. Psa.54:6 I will freely
sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good. Mat 8:2-3
And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou
wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched
him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Here we see that what brought this man to Jesus was his condition, not
any individual.

b) When our prayers come from our
heart, not our lips. Ps.15:1-2 (Jer.29:12-14) Then shall ye call upon me,
and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall
seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And
I will be found of you, saith the LORD.

God has never been into lip service.
If we really want to get God's attention, we must show Him that we are serious
about what we are asking for. (Lk.11:5-11)

Are we truly desirous about getting
sin out of our lives? We sing "all to Jesus I surrender", but do we mean it?
We can make long prayers at church, at the dinner table, we can say all the
right words with other Christians around to make them think we are so spiritual,
but no one has ever been able to fool the Lord, and no one will.

Luke 16:15 And he said unto them,
Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts.

c) When we are truly sorry for
our sins. (Psa.38:18) For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry
for my sin. The Bible says in Matt.27:3 that Judas repented himself when
he saw that Jesus was condemned. However, when the chief priests and elders
didn't offer consolation to ease his conscience which Judas was looking for,
he went out and hung himself. We see from this that Judas was not truly sorry
for the sin of betrayal, because if he was, he would not have gone to religion
for forgiveness, but he would have gone to God. Religion has a way of putting
your conscience at ease, telling you everything is alright, and God loves
you, and giving you feel good messages about yourself, and all the other nonsense
that goes along with it, and this was what Judas was looking for. On the other
side, in Lk.22:61-62, when Peter denied Jesus (which is another form of betrayal--
he betrayed his friendship with Jesus) the Bible says that Jesus looked on
Peter, (the conviction) Peter remembered what Jesus had told him, and although
it doesn't say, I'm sure Peter remembered what he told Jesus about never denying
Him (the condemnation-- Mat 12:37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified,
and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.) and than Peter went out and
wept bitterly (the conversion).When God sends conviction into your
soul to where you can't stand it and the need to get it right burns with such
a fire that through weeping, praying, and begging God for His mercy you get
the matter right, that is the repentance God is looking for. That is when
you are truly sorry.

d) When we humble ourselves. (Lk.18:10:14)
Here we see that the Pharisee was praying with himself, God wasn't anywhere
near that prayer. He wanted to let God know what a great guy he thought he
was. Five times (5 being the number of death) he uses the word "I" in his
"religious" prayer. (Religion does have a way of promoting self!) However,
the publican knew that the only way to get God's attention was to humble himself.
And he did. Another example is in Mk.7:25-30 Did Jesus answer this
woman's prayer because she admitted she was a dog? No, He answered her because
she was willing to humble herself to help another in need of help, which could
have only come from the Lord Jesus. Take the centurion in Matt.8. A centurion
was an officer in the Roman army, nominally in command of one hundred soldiers.
They were usually career soldiers, and they formed the real backbone of the
Roman military force. And yet, he was willing to risk much to go to Jesus
for help. And the result was a comment made by Jesus that cannot be taken
lightly "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not
in Israel." 1 Pet 5:6-7 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty
hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon
him; for he careth for you.

3) Can we limit God in our prayers?
The answer to that is yes, we can. Psa.78:41 Yea, they turned back and
tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. Here is Ps.78, we can see
two reasons how we can be limited in our prayers to God.

a) Lack of trust-- Yea,
they turned back and tempted God. God was not answering the children of
Israel's prayers like they thought He would. Not understanding that all the
trials and tribulations they were going through out there in the wilderness
was for their spiritual growth, they spent more time complaining about what
God was not doing for them instead of praising Him for what He had done and
was continuing to do for them. In Ex.13:17 the bible clearly teaches that
God did not lead them through the land of the enemy, but through the wilderness.

They didn't understand that He did
that because He loved them. But all they focused on was the negative on every
situation until it reached the point to where they gave up on God and wanted
to go back into slavery under Pharaoh. They didn't care about being slaves again
because as far as they were concerned, at least Pharaoh fed them daily. But
so did God. Had they not noticed that their shoes and clothing were not wearing
out! But these were people who were used to walking by sight, not faith. And
they didn't like it. It all came down to a lack of faith and trust in God. Deu.32:20
And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall
be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.

Unfortunately, many of God's children
are living the same way today. John 16:29-30 His disciples said unto him,
Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that
thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this
we believe that thou camest forth from God. And then Jesus asked them a
very important question in v31 Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? How
much does God have do for us before we just trust Him, no questions asked? The
Bible says in Prov.3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean
not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall
direct thy paths.

Trust in the Lord with all
thine heart, in all things, at all times. When our faith and trust in God is
based solely on the outcome of situations that come into our lives, what we
are telling God by our actions is that we do not trust Him. In Psa.21:2-7 the
bible talks about 9 different areas in which God blesses David because of his
faith in Him. They are: (1) Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and (2)
hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah. (3) For thou preventest
(or met) him with the blessings of goodness: (4) thou settest a crown of pure
gold on his head. (5) He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length
of days for ever and ever. (6) His glory is great in thy salvation: (7) honour
and majesty hast thou laid upon him. (8) For thou hast made him most blessed
for ever: (9) thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. For
the king trusteth in the LORD, and through the mercy of the most High he
shall not be moved. How much we miss on God's blesses and answers to prayers
when we trust Him half-way. Psa.20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in
horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. The question
is: who or what is it that you trust in?

A friend loveth at all times.
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. And his commandments are
not grievous. (Prov.17:17; Jn.15:14; 1Jn.5:3)

b)Lack of faith--- And
limited the Holy One of Israel. (Eph.3:20 Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power
that worketh in us) As Christians, we have been given the capabilities and
resources to become great and mighty soldiers for the Lord Jesus Christ. However,
the Lord leaves it up to us on how great and mighty we really want to become
for Him. One reason most saved individuals HGHhhhh accomplish nothing for
the Lord is that they have no faith in the One they are praying to. Their
prayer is liken to the man in Mk.9:22 when he brought his son to be healed
by Jesus " if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us,
and help us." He didn't really believe Jesus could help him. When you have
no faith, you have no power.(Jm.2:17) But we see that the Lord turned it back
on him " if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth" The man repented of his unbelief, and his son was healed.
Another good example is found in John 11:39. The Lord is ready to perform
a miracle by raising Lazarus from the dead. All Jesus wanted them to do is
remove the stone from the cave where his body laid. Yes, the Lord could have
done it Himself, but He wanted them to be involved in His miracle. Martha
made the statement " But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of
God, God will give it thee." but yet, when the Lord ordered the stone removed,
it was Martha that questioned Jesus on His command.

What was keeping the people from
seeing that miracle? It was the stone.

1 Pet 2:8 And a stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient.
We can compare the stone in Jn.11 to this stone in 1 Pet.

People won't pray to the Lord Jesus
because:

1) They have no faith 2) They have
no trust 3) They have no confidence 4) They have no patience. They expect prayers
to be answered in accordance to the way they desire and on their
time-table, and when it's not, they feel that God has abandoned them, and they
give up one, if not the most important part of benefits we receive when we get
saved, and that is direct communication with the Lord of lords and King of kings.
We need to let God be God, humble ourselves at His feet, and be thankful on
however He decides He wants to answer our prayer. One way we can
show people that we serve a living God is when we can show them how He has answered
our prayers.

Isa.43:10-12 Ye are my witnesses,
saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and
believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God
formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside
me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and
I have showed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore
ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.

LESSON
6

Warning of the dangers of bitterness,
and the damage it causes (Col.1:28)

1 Pet 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant;
because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking
whom he may devour. The method he uses to devour us is simple: he plots
us against each other. Gal 5:15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take
heed that ye be not consumed one of another. Lest Satan should get an advantage
of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 2 Cor.2:11 As we can read
from these passages, Satan is looking for whomever it is unprotected, unarmed,

and unprepared to fend off his attacks.
A good definition for devour is: To prey upon voraciously, or with an insatiable
appetite for a pursuit. He'll stop at nothing to achieve his goal of dragging
those unsaved to hell, and making havoc of the lives of those that are saved.
Rev 2:24 which have not known the depths of Satan. And as he goes
around trying to accomplish his mission, he has many different devices at his
disposal. And one of his devices is bitterness. Jesus said in Mat12:25 ... Every
kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house
divided against itself shall not stand. When a Christian backslides and
it is not dealt with swiftly and correctly,( the key word here being correctly!)
eventually they will turn bitter against other Christians, the church, and God.
We will look at these three and see where each one can lead to. Bitterness will
bring division into the house of God; the house being our tabernacles (which
is our bodies 2Cor.5:1,4) and the church.(1Tim.3:15)

1) Bitterness towards other Christians.
Heb12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any
root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.
When a Christians get mad or bitter at another, not only does it affect that
person, but it spreads like cancer to other Christians, and before you realize
how bad the damage can be, it's done! How we need to be careful with our words.
Psa.39:1 I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my

tongue. Set a watch, O LORD,
before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. Psa.141:3.

Three reasons why Christians get
bitter are:

a) Envy (Acts8:9-23) Here we see
a man named Simon who had gotten saved, but let the root of envy grow in his
heart. A good definition for envy is having a resentful desire for another's
advantages, and that is what Simon had towards Philip, Peter, and John. Phillip
came into the city of Samaria and preached Jesus and many came to salvation.
Then Peter and John came and laid hands on those that had gotten saved, and
they received the Holy Spirit. Simon also had gotten saved, and when he saw
Peter and John laying hands and the Holy Spirit was given by God through them,
he wanted this power. Simon was one who was held in high regard by all (v9),
when he spoke, people would take heed that it was he that had spoken (v10),
and he enjoyed the prestige that he had in the city of Samaria.(v11) But it
all changed when he got saved. No longer was he in the spotlight, no longer
was it his words that carried weight, now he wasn't the big shot in the city,
it was Peter and John, and Simon didn't like it. He wanted the ability to
lay hands on others not for their benefit, but for his own. That's why Peter
told him in verses 21-23 thy heart is not right in the sight of God.
Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought
of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall
of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. There are those today not
in church today because they are envious of other Christians. The jobs others
hold, the cars other drive, the clothes they wear, the positions they hold
in church. You name it, they are envious over it. Why? One word: pride. The
Bible tells us in James 3:14-16 But if ye have bitter envying and strife
in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth
not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife
is, there is confusion and every evil work.

God places people in the church where
He wants them, God blesses one and allows the other to face difficult times.
But there are those that feel that they should be behind every good blessing
and every important position, and when they are not, they allow that pride to
destroy clear thinking, and good Godly living.

b) Jealousy (1 Sam 20:27-34) The
second reason why Christians get bitter is a continuance of the first. Again,
we need to look at the definition of this word, and it can be clearly seen
that Saul was truly jealous of David. To be jealous means:

Fearful or wary of being supplanted
(replaced) (1Sam.24:20)

Apprehensive of losing affection
or position.(1Sam.22:7)

Resentful or bitter in rivalry;
envious.(1Sam.22:13)

Inclined to suspect rivalry.(1Sam.20:30)

Having to do with or arising
from feelings of envy, apprehension, or bitterness.(1Sam.20:31)

Vigilant in guarding something.(1Sam.20:27)

Intolerant of disloyalty or
infidelity; autocratic.(1Sam.22:8)

Saul was so bitter and jealous over
David that he allowed his anger to consume him by leaving his kingdom to track
him down time after time to kill him where at one time Saul loved David.(1 Sam
16:21) It also affected his relationship with his own son Jonathan. Saul accused
Jonathan of "choosing" David (or siding with him--v30), and when Jonathan didn't
agree with his father in the matter, Saul attempted to take the life of his
son by casting a javelin (spear) at him! By these scriptures we can understand
that Saul felt David to be his rival because of his standing with God and knowing
he was going to lose the kingdom to him. Jealousy leads to bitterness, there
can be no doubt. It hinders Godly thinking, discernment, and discretion on matters
that affect us and others.

3) Anger and resentment (1Sam.17:13)
The third reason for bitterness towards others is because of anger and resentment
they have harbor in their hearts for others. Here in 1Sam.17 we see that the
three elder sons of Jessie join with Saul in the battle in the valley of Elah
to set the battle in array against the Philistines. David came down to deliver
food that Jessie sent, and when he heard Goliath blaspheme against God, he was
angered and was ready to deliver justice then and there. Eliab, the firstborn,
heard what David was saying to the men and proceeded to tell David in no uncertain
words that he was not welcomed or needed there.(1Sam.17:28) Why would Eliab
be so angry at his brother? David's purpose was not to upstage anyone, but to
show the Philistines .. that all the earth may know that there is a God in
Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword
and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands
1Sam.17:46-47 Although the Bible does not clearly state why, there are a few
possibilities.

a) Eliab's pride was bruised. After
all, he was the firstborn of the sons of Jesse. Firstborns in the Bible hold
certain positions and responsibilities. The youngest showing up the oldest
did not sit well then as it does not even in today's society. If anyone was
going to lead the battle of the sons of Jesse, it was to be Eliab.

b) Eliab resented Samuel choosing
David over him. In 1Sam.16:6, we read that Samuel believed that Eliab was
the one to be the king over Israel, but he was rejected of the Lord. Perhaps
Eliab harbored this in his heart. Again, he was the firstborn, and by all
rights, he should be the first choice to succeed Saul. We know that the Lord
chose David, but did Eliab? The Bible does not say.

When anger is first harbored in one's
heart, it is a small flame. However, if we do not take care of the matter, the
devil has plenty of gas to pump that small flame into a inferno. It then turns
into hatred for that individual . Hatred stirreth up (fuels the fire) strifes:
but love covereth (puts out) all sins. Prov.10:12 When hatred takes hold, than
resentment is soon to follow. The spirit of resentment is a spirit of indignation.

They are angry, hurt, frustrated
by a certain situation that happened and they will not give it wholly to the
Lord irregardless if the other individual asks forgiveness and tries to makes
things right. The attitude is "I'm angry and hurt, and if I am, you better be
to!" When the other party involved does not have the same attitude and God starts
blessing them, the devil really turns up the flames by whispering in their ears
all manners of lies and false accusations, and this bring resentment for any
and all things that Christian wants to do in his/her life for the Lord. In Matt.18:23-27
we read the parable about a servant that was forgiven by His Master when he
could not pay his debt. From

v28-31 we see that this same servant
did not forgive his fellow servant and it was told to the Master.

Mat 18:32-35 Then his lord, after
that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee
all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion
on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and
delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts
forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. Here we read that the Lord
delivered him to the tormentors. What that Christian doesn't realize is
that God has allowed Satan to do this to teach those that will not forgive from
their hearts a lesson. To torment someone does not always means causing physical
pain, but it includes mental anguish. The Lord will turn you over to the spirit
of bitterness, wrath, anger, hatred, resentment and malice. These spirits will
torment you mentally, and you will have no rest until you finally reach the
point of full repentance. For some, only days need to go by before they've paid
all. For others, weeks. Others years go by and unfortunately there are some
that go to the grave who never get things right with others. Truly it is best
just to forgive, forget, forbear, and go forward for the Lord.

2) Bitterness towards the church.
(Acts 6:1) Here in Acts 6, we read that the church was growing and could not
properly look after the needs of the people as they once did when the congregation
was smaller. When this happened, instead of praising God for more people getting
saved and growing together as a body, they looked at the situation and complained
that their needs were not being taken care of. A Grecian was an individual who:
(a) was a native of Greece and (b) was a Jew that was born outside Israel and
understood the Greek language. Whether the apostles lost sight of the fact that
the body was indeed growing and that the Grecians were being overlooked in the
service that they wished to perform, the fact still remains that instead of
going to God with the problem, they started to get bitter about it and that
caused them to murmur against those God had in charge. The apostles remedy the
situation with God given wisdom and had seven men appointed to help with the
everyday running of the church. This is a direct correlation to Ex.18:17-23
when Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, saw the situation that Moses was in when
he had to judge the people from morning to evening. Jethro knew it was too much
for one to handle and came up with a solution that applied here in Acts 6. Moses'
job, as the apostles, was to be a intercessor for the people to God-ward, that
he may bring their causes unto God. And he should teach them ordinances and
laws, and show them the way they must walk, and the work that they must do.
And so Moses did what the apostles did, he had others help in the smaller detail
with the church in the wilderness. So now we read in Acts 6:5, this pleased
everyone involved. Were they pleased that they had seven men of honest report,
full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, or were they pleased that their needs were
met? I tend to think the latter. Our old man likes to be taken care of, either
by our-selves, or by whoever is available. We tend to put our own need above
everyone else. It's known as the "me first" attitude, and that filters into
the church. Some of these attitudes are:

"No one recognizes me and the
work I do here."

"They didn't asked me how they
should spend the money I help give to the church."

"Why did (fill in the blank)
get promoted to a bigger ministry when I've been here longer."

"I was sick and no one, not even
the pastor, came and visited me."

And the list could go on and on.
Unfortunately, we are living in a day where Christians carry their feelings
on their shoulder. And when something does happened, they are offended easily
and react as babes instead of young or mature Christians. The usual procedure
is that once they get hurt, they get angry. And after awhile, they become bitter.
And then self-pity sets in to where they feel that no one cares for them, that
all have abandoned them and left them for dead. At this stage is where Satan
gets the advantage. They are vulnerable to any and all "council" that Satan
has to offer. The first to get the blame is God Himself. Then Satan blames the
church for not caring enough, and then he goes to the individual(s) themselves.
Instead of rebuking Satan for the false accusations he had laid, people tend
to accept his logic as legitimate. Eccl.9:18 Wisdom is better than weapons
of war (the right kind of wisdom): but one sinner destroyeth much good.

When you have a Christian that is
bitter at the church, you have one who has the potential of destroying a good,
solid church with their anger being the driving force. Destruction from the
inside is always more lethal than from outside forces. Psa. 55:12-14 For
it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither
was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have
hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

3) Bitterness towards God. (Jonah
3:10-4:4) Jonah was a prophet(2Ki.14:25) sent by God to warn the people of Nineveh
that God's judgment was coming upon the city unless they repented of their sins
and turned to God. Most know the story of how Jonah rebelled and fled and that
God prepared a whale to swallow him up until he got right and did as the Lord
commanded him. I believe the reason Jonah reacted the way he did was because
he was harboring bitterness and resentment towards the inhabitants of Nineveh.
The city was the greatest of the capitals of the ancient Assyrian Empire, and
the Assyrians were the Jews enemy. In ch.4:2, Jonah told the Lord that he knew
that God was going to forgive them and not destroy the town. This did not set
well with him so he took off. It was in the belly of the whale that Jonah told
the Lord that he would go and preach as he promised. (Jonah 2:9) Here is a good
example of working for the Lord and the heart is just not in it. Jonah 4:1 But
it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. Instead of rejoicing
and praising the Lord for a town turning to God, he got angry at God. In fact,
the Bible tells us that he got "very angry." Because of his bitterness for the
Assyrians, he couldn't see the mercies of God to forgive a wicked people. His
anger and hatred had clouded his mind and so it goes for those Christians that
flee at God's voice, be it through prayer, preaching, daily Bible reading, or
just the Holy Spirit's convicting power. They get mad at God. They blame Him
for all the wrong that is going on in their lives, for Christians hurting them
with their words and/or actions, and for there own failures. Why does God get
all the blame?

They never make a fair evaluation
of the situation. Anger usually rules the actions instead of a cool head.
Prov.25:28 He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that
is broken down, and without walls. Totally defenseless, the same state
anyone who rules by their anger is in.

It's easier to blame others than
yourself. Lam 3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the
LORD. When we do search our own ways, we find that we are the blame, not
God.

They blame it on someone who
is not around to defend Himself. Just as the Lord Jesus spoke not a word at
His trial but took the accusations, so does our Father take the accusations
of mankind, be they saved or unsaved. It seems that God will never get off
the trial stand.

But one thing I do know, before you
blame the Lord for anything, take a good objective look at the situation and
see where God fits in to receive the blame.

If you'll do that, and truly be sincere
about it, you'll find ten of ten times that it is the individual that's at fault,
and not God. He good to us all the time.

Jn.10:32 Many good works have
I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?

LESSON
7

Rewards (Col.3:24)

2 John 1:8 Look to yourselves,
that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full
reward. The Lord speaks of rewards, rewarded, rewarder, rewardeth 112 times
in 108 verses in His Word, so we can see God uses the reward system in our lives
to let us know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord(1Cor.15:58). However,
as we can see in 2 John, there is that possibility of losing that which we have
earned in our Christian walk. As children of the King, we should want everything
He has for us, but our adversary is trying his very best to stop us from achieving
this goal. 1 Cor.3:10-15 According to the grace of God which is given unto
me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth
thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build
upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones,(works of the
Spirit) wood, hay, stubble;(works of the flesh) Every
man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it
shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort
it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive
a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but
he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. How does a Christian lose
that which they think is solid and secure? In the parable of the ten, five,
and one pound recorded in Lk.19:12-26, the one who lost was the one who did
nothing with it. And at the very end of the parable, the Lord tell us what happens
to that pound For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be
given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from
him. note** the same thing happens to the man with the talent in Matt.25:29
What we need to understand is that God has rewards that He wants to give us,
but it is not the devil that hinders us from receiving them, but it is our pride,
laziness, and lack of concern that stops us from getting that full reward. Eph.3:20
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask
or think, according to the power that worketh in us. In this lesson, we
will not only look at the rewards that can await us when we get to glory, but
we'll also look at what gifts our Father can and will give us while we are down
here, if we obey His voice, His Word, and His leading
by His Spirit. Deu.6:17-18 Ye shall diligently keep the commandments
of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded
thee. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of
the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess
the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers.(reward)

1) Gifts given while here.

a) He takes care of us with our
daily needs. (Mat 6:25-33) In Ps.37:25, king David made this statement:
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread. That is a promise made by God to those that
seek to do His will and live for Him. When we decide not to follow His direction,
what we are doing is putting His promise of taking care of us behind us and
going out on our own. DANGEROUS! Giving up that protection is not worth the
hurt, regrets, or angry some of God's children are carrying right now.

b) He gives us peace and rest.
(Matt.11:28-29) Psa 34:4,6-8 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered
me from all my fears. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved
him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them
that fear him, and delivereth them. O taste and see that the LORD is good:
blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

We live in a age where there is so
much uncertainty. Jobs are being lost by the thousands, bankruptcy is a common
occurrence in the business world because of the economy being very unstable.
The marriage vow is words to most people, those that never had any intention
on keeping them.

Morality has dwindled and standing
for what is right gets tougher and tougher as each day goes by, and on and on
it goes. There are times when it is tough to face the daily battles, not just
spiritually, but also materially. 2 Cor.7:5-6 For, when we were come into
Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without
were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless God, that comforteth
those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus. When a Christian
is out of fellowship with God, he loses that strong tower where he can run and
be safe. There is no peace and rest outside the Lord Jesus Christ, it
is not to be found. He is our peace.

c) He gives us the privilege of
prayer. (John 16:23) John 9:31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners:
but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
When the Lord rent the veil in the temple when He died, what He did was
remove the middleman--the high priest, and the message was sent out, whosoever
will may come. The Father was now accessible through the blood of the Lamb.
Prayer is a great privilege to have. Only those that have had the prayer line
cut by the Lord can truly appreciate what a great blessing it is to have a
open line to the throne of God. Never, ever take it for granted. When a Christian
gets out of sorts other Christians, their spouses, the church, and they make
no attempt to get it right, they are taking spiritual scissors and cutting
off the phone line to God. Psa 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me. We can see that the psalmist knew God
was going to cut the communications off if he harbored sin in his heart, but
as we read in v19-20 he didn't have this problem. But verily God hath heard
me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath
not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. Christian, is it worth
losing that open line between you and the Father?

d) He gives us the abilities needed
to keep His church going on for Him. Rom.12:5-8 So we, being many, are
one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts
differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy,
let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry,
let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or
he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do
it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth
mercy, with cheerfulness. When the Jews were to build the tabernacle,
every craft needed to fulfill the job was available. Exo.36:1 Then wrought
Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the LORD put wisdom
and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of
the sanctuary, according to all that the LORD had commanded.

Even though God gives us the ability
to serve Him, He rewards us as though we did it all ourselves!

e) He gives us grace. Eph.4:7
But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift
of Christ. How much grace will He give us? Psa 84:11 For the LORD
God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing
will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. As long as we walk right
with God, there really is no limit of His grace towards us. And as we receive
this gift of God towards us, we are to grow in grace with one another. 2Pet.3:18

f) He gives us wisdom. James 1:5
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally,
and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. God wants us to be increasing
in the knowledge of Him daily, and all we have to do is ask. He'll give us
the amount of wisdom He knows we can handle.

And what shall I more say? for the
time would fail me to tell of His gift of forgiveness, long-suffering, patience,
forbearance, endless love, guidance, mercies and on and on. Christian, with
all this wealth waiting to be given us, why do we snub our noses at it?

Gifts given when we get to Beulah
Land.

a) Cities to rule over. (Luke 19:17-19)
We can either rule or be ruled.

b) A mansion. (John 14:1-3) I don't
believe this gift will be taken from a Christian.

c) A new name. Isa.62:2 talks about
giving us a new name, Rev.217 talks about our new name written on a white
stone, and Rev. 3:12 talks about the Lord engraving it on our foreheads. When
He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new, He means
all things; nature, body, name. Just as our old name we have here is
connected to our sinful flesh, so our new name is connected to our glorified
body.

d) All memory of this past life
removed. Rev.21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Guarentee, when
a Christian gets away from God, he/she suffers sorrow, crying, and pain while
they are in that backslidden stage. And when they come back to the Lord, they
come back forgiven. And though the sin may be wiped clean, unfortunately the
scars of sin linger, and from time to time, Satan will use those scars to
bring back into remembrance the things you've done while in that ungodly condition.
What a wonderful gift, the gift of the washing of the mind, and all the trash
that was accumulated in it. We will have one that will not never remember
our past. The Lord truly is good to us.

e) Crowns. A crown is a distinction
or reward for achievement. 1 Cor.9:24-25 Know ye not that they which run
in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now
they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. Understanding
that the general teaching is that there are five crowns to be won, this writer
believes that there are four. The crown spoken of here in 1Cor. is explaining
what kind of crown it is, and the reason why we should strive to claim
all the crowns we can. Everyone who has ever won any kind of award here on
earth realizes at one time or another that the glory that went along with
that award was short lived, and the glory faded away. Basically, the attitude
is "what have you done lately?" One day you can be hailed, and it seems that
the next day you're forgotten unless you keep on top. The Bible is telling
us that that's not the way it works with the Christians rewards. Our crowns
will be in existence for all eternity. The four crowns are:

1) The crown
of joy. 1Thes.2:19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown
of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ
at his coming? This crown is given to those Christians who minister to other
Christians. It is given to teachers, preachers, good Godly parents who bring
up their children in the ways of the Lord, to anyone who has put others first
so those individuals can and will have a successful walk with their Savior.
That is how we can rejoice when others come in the presence of the Lord, knowing
we've helped them reach their potential for Jesus. But make no mistake, it is
a sacrificial crown, the reasoning being in order to help others have a good
walk, it will cost: (1) your time (2) your efforts (3) your patience (4) your
prayers, and perhaps (5) your finances. But in the book of 3 John, John makes
this statement: I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk
in truth. It's the heart of a pastor that knows his flock is walking according
to the word of God. And the same goes for those that have helped disciple others.
Everyone has a chance to receive this crown, if they will be a disciplined one
and work for the Master. Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow
me.

2) The crown
of righteousness. 2 Tim 4:6-8 For I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me
at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

This crown is given to those Christians
that have taken their eyes off this world and have fully focused on the return
of the Lord Jesus.

Not only do they read about it,
hear preaching on it, but they truly believe it to be so, and that is how they
live. They know there is a judgment day coming, and they will have to give an
account, so their lifestyle revolves around that fact. Everyday they expect
a battle, so everyday they have their sword ready. Quitting is an easy out and
many have taken it, but for those true soldiers of the cross, there is no quit.
The Lord knows the road that leads to our eternal home can be wearisome, but
He also rewards greatly those that continue on, those that finish what they
start. How was Paul able to fight the good fight and finish the job the Lord
had for him? He kept his faith in his Savior. In all that he went through as
described in 2Cor.11:24-27, it never seemed to hinder Paul. In fact, it helped
him grow closer to the Lord. He knew that "all things worked together for good",
but I'm sure he knew Psa 145:17 The LORD is righteous in all his
ways, and holy in all his works. If we can understand
that everything that comes down our way, God knows about it and has allowed
it to happen, we have the opportunity to become greater Christians than Paul.
When it comes down to it, what we need to do is just trust and obey no matter
if we: (1) understand it.(2) like it.(3) agree with it. Are you like Paul who
forsook the world for the Savior, or like Demas who forsook the Savior for the
world?

3) The crown
of life James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation:
for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath
promised to them that love him. This crown is given to those that understand
that There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but
God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able;
but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able
to bear it. 1Cor.10:13

The word endure mean to carry on
through, despite hardships. Also, it means to bear with tolerance, and to suffer
patiently without yielding. Satan knows exactly how to push our buttons. He
knows what we like to watch on T.V., what type of movies we enjoy, what music
our we like, how short our tempers are, and how to pump our egos. He then uses
these things against us with the permission of the Lord. But the Lord has a
purpose for this. We tell our family, friends, brethren, pastor how much we
love the Lord and want to be in His service, and so God allows us these temptations
to come our way in order to prove us.(2Chron.32:31) The Bible tells us in Prov.
17:17 A friend loveth at all times. In the calm as well as the
storm. Know, understand, and accept the fact that we will get tempted. But also
know that we do not have to taste defeat everytime a temptation comes our way.
We can get the victory if we look for the escape hatch hard enough, and that
way out is the door Himself. How can we show the Lord that we love Him? By having
enough fortitude to endure the temptations during those difficult times. Thou
therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2Tim.2:3

4) The crown
of glory 1 Pet 5:2-4 Feed the flock of God which is among you,
taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy
lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but
being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall
receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. This is the only crown that
is not available to every Christian.This crown can only be won by a
pastor of a church. Briefly, we will look at what is involved in receiving this
crown.

1) Feed the flock. This is in regards
to a spiritual feeding. The only way a pastor can properly feed the flock is
if he is getting fed from the Word daily. It takes work getting lessons
and messages together week after week. It takes fasting, Bible reading, a good
and productive prayer life, and a broken and contrite spirit to get what He
needs from the Shepherd but any pastor worth his salt looks for that "fresh
oil" every service. How a pastor nourishes himself in the Lord is how he nourishes
the church God gave him to be leader of.

2) Be a leader. The Bible tells the
pastors to take the oversight, to be watchful. They must guard against those
that come in sheeps clothing, but inwardly they are wolves.

Also, they must assume the leadership
role God has placed them in. It is not the responsibility of the deacons to
make decisions for the church. Nor is it the members responsibility to
have the final say in the matters of the church. It is the pastors, and they
must realize this, or not take on the position of pastor. However, the Bible
does outline how the pastor is to run (or rule) the church.

a) Not by constraint, but willingly.
The word constraint is given to those that threaten or use of force to prevent,
restrict, or dictate the action or thought of others. God did not set up the
church to be ruled by a dictator. In fact, the Bible teaches that God hates
that method. Rev 2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of
the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate. The word Nicolaitanes means to conquer
the common man, and it is in relation to the clergy over the laity. The Lord
has given us the liberty to "searched the scriptures daily, whether those
things were so." Acts17:11

b) Not for filthy lucre, but of
a ready mind. A pastor's heart is a heart that wants to give to his congregation
what is best for them, and his mind should always be at the ready in this
area. He is not looking for what the congregation can give to him outside
meeting his and his families needs, keeping them in prayer, supporting and
loving him.

c) Neither as being lords over
God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. The pastor should not have
a puffed up, prideful attitude that gives them the illusion that only the
congregation can do wrong, and not them. It's a sad commentary, but many churches
today are run by those type of individuals. The scribes and Pharisees had
this condition. It should not be a "do as I say, not as I do" attitude, but
it should be a "follow my example" attitude. The pastor is to be a ensample
to the flock. They need to be above reproach. The pastor needs the people
see them hitting the altar, they need to see them put into practice what they
hear them preach week after week. The pastor needs the people see them passing
out tracks and witnessing to others. Words without action is dead.

The crowns are ours for the taking,
why not get as many as the Lord wants to give? But know that as freely as He
wants to give, so freely He'll take them away if we don't want them.

Mark 4:25 For he that hath, to
him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that
which he hath.

LESSON
8

Restoration with the brethren and
with God (Col.2:2)

Psa 137:1-4 By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there
they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted
us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall
we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?

When a Christians gets out of sorts
with other Christians or God, the joy that they once experienced with their
salvation is held captive by anger, bitterness, self-pity, and every other emotion
that is geared to destroy our walk with the Lord. The songs of Zion are gone.
The backslidden child quits, they weep, they remember, and they lose the song
in their heart. The goals of these eight lessons are:

To show the Christian the error
of their ways using God's Word as the guideline.

To revive the spirit of wisdom
that has been smothered by unclear and misguided thinking.

To restore them back into the
unity of their God and His body; the church.

To restore that joy back where
they will once again be able to lift up their hearts in praise and thanksgiving
to the Lord.

To get them back into the service
of the King.

To restore a brother or sister back
into the fold or back with God is as important to Him as one who accepts His
Son as Lord and Savior. But there is a set order in which the backslidden Christian
should follow in order to get back in good fellowship with God. It's found in
Lk.15: 17-20

And when he came to himself,
he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare,
and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will
say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired
servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a
great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on
his neck, and kissed him.

1) You must get an understanding
of the situation you are in.(He came to himself.) Self-denial, blame shifting
and finger pointing does nothing but fool you into believing that everyone else
but you is at fault in the situation. And while you are looking at the problem
through biased eyes, you haven't been looking at the Bible sitting on the shelf,
nor have you realized that the time that once was spent in prayer is now spent
in a magazine, newspaper, or the television, or you've used the time to complain
and gossip to others about how unfair the whole thing is! Understand this; that
your life is in turmoil which can (and will!) spill over into your family's
walk. You will have no peace until you realize that; although it might not be
your entire fault, more times than not, you've had a hand in it.

2) You determine that you will get
things right. ( I will arise) The next phase after coming to yourself is making
it a priority to get things right, first with the one (or ones) you've had a
falling out with, and then with the Lord. Mat 5:23-24 Therefore if thou bring
thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against
thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled
to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. When the Holy Spirit convicts
you to get things right, do not procrastinate. Make it right. In all labour
there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. Prov 14:23

3) You acknowledge your wrong. (I
have sinned) Right here is the key to reconciliation, to admit that you are
wrong. Psa 51:3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever
before me.

When we admit our errors and mistakes,
we are in fact humbling ourselves to the person (or persons) in asking their
forgiveness. This kind of spirit is what God wants from His children. Psa 51:17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise.

But unfortunately, one of the hardest
sins we as Christians have to deal with is the sin of stubbornness. 1 Sam 15:23
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity
and idolatry. The word iniquity here comes from the Greek wordanomia,
which means lawlessness. God likens a stubborn man to be without law and a worshipper
of false gods. This is a serious comparison. The Lord wants us to acknowledge
what we've done, ask the Lord for forgiveness, and advance in our walk for Him.
2 Pet 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that
ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. But there is one that was left out, and that is:

4) You must be willing to accept
the consequences for your actions.(Am no more worthy) Prov.29:23 A man's
pride shall bring him low(the prodigal was in the pigpen when all forsook
him): but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit. (The father clothed
him with the best robe, he put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and
killed the fatted calf.) Yes, the Lord will forgive you and cleanse and restore
the fellowship with Him, but there is another factor involved: Josh 22:20 ...Man
perished not alone in his iniquity. When a Christian gets angry or bitter
at God, the church, or other brethren, they need to remember that they are not
the only ones affected by their spiritual condition. Husbands, wives, children,
friends, family and so on are the recipients of the anger, hurt or whatever
it is that has taken the place of their spiritual peace and it does take
its toll. In a matter of minute, words that are spewed out in anger against
God, the church, or the brethren in the presence of young ears will produce
the fruit that; either intentionally or unintentionally, the speaker planted
by their words. And it could take days, weeks, and sometimes-even years to weed
out the bad that was produced, if it can be weeded out at all! Psa.59:7
Behold, they belch out (to erupt or explode) with their mouth: swords
are in their lips:(used to tear up and destroy) for who, say they, doth
hear?

5) Action is put behind the words
(And he arose and came to his father) The prodigal could have made all kinds
of promises to himself on how he was going to get things right, how he was going
to turn his life around, how he was going to go to church every Sun., and on
and on. But had he not gotten up out of the pigpen and went, those words would
have been meaningless. Words without actions are dead. How many do we know that
say all kinds of things, but there is no backing to support what they say. Although
I'm sure there are more, listed are six reasons why the average Christian does
not get the situation corrected between them and others:

Procrastination "I'll do it later"

Slothfulness "I don't feel like
doing it right now"

Pride "It's not me that has the
problem, it's them"

Anger "I'm not ready to get things
right just yet"

Self-denial "I don't think it's
that big of a deal"

Self-protection "I don't want
or need any more conflicts"

Whatever the reason or excuse, the
backslidden Christian has no real peace until they correct the matter and are
back in fellowship with the Lord and each other. Four basic principles to follow
are:

2) Prove you want to be restored.
Luke 19:8 And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the
half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any
man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.

3) Believe you will be restored.
Isa.57:18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also,
and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.

4) Give thanks for when you are restored.
Psa 23:3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.